two and a half cheers for 1900

Rating: 8/10 (24 August 2006)

The poet Tennyson wrote that "all experience is an arch through which gleams that untraveled world, whose margin fades forever and ever as I move." Everyone chooses how big a world to live in, what archways to pass through. Some people never leave their home town, others travel the globe. The protagonist of this story chooses to live out his life aboard the ship he was born on, traveling the world, albeit inside an iron shell. His reasons for refusing to leave are eloquently articulated in one of the final scenes of the film. "1900" is a sort of Holden Caulfield, his sensitivity seemingly too refined, too delicate to venture out among the trammeling horde. Aesthetically, this film has it all, great music, decor, imaginative staging, fine acting. Each viewer's gut philosophy will prompt him or her to cry or cheer at "1900's" decision to be blown up rather than pass through Tennyson's arch of experience.